1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management apparatus configured to manage one or more network devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to apply a security rule to a plurality of network devices, a conventional method sets a group to which they belong for network devices. For example, a conventional method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-66974 registers a plurality of network devices as a group according to positional information. Furthermore, the conventional method applies a security rule differently to each group. In the above-described manner, the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-66974 applies the security rule to a plurality of network devices.
For a network device, an application program (hereinafter simply referred to as an “application”) to be installed or not to be installed may be determined according to its installation location. For example, in a location to which a non-authorized person can access, it is desired that an application configured to monitor the utilization status of the network device be installed.
In addition, for a network device, a user who can or cannot utilize the network device may be determined according to the installation location of the network device. In a conventional system, an information technology (IT) administrator is required to verify whether each network device is located in a security application region and to execute an optimum setting to each network device.
More specifically, in a conventional system, the IT administrator is required to bear the enormous burden of having to determine whether each network device complies with the security policy of an area to which each network device has moved every time the installation location of each network device has been changed or every time an application has been installed to or uninstalled from each network device and having to execute necessary operations.